CA Gov't Withholding Documents Concerning Torture of Kids

[jimsenchuk]

The CA Govt Is Withholding Documents Concerning Torture of Children

In the early 1990s an affiliation of Cochrane, Kapuskasing, and James Bay’s OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) detectives were assigned to investigate one of the largest claims of sexual and physical abuse against children in Canadian history. The testimony they amassed by talking to hundreds of survivors of St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany Ontario was horrifying. The investigation provided 7,000 pages of stories that wouldn’t be out of place in memoirs of concentration camp survivors, or of individuals trapped in a country where ethnic cleansing is a government policy.

The accounts of physical and sexual abuse are brutal and numerous—hetero and homosexual child rape, children being beaten with straps and rudimentary whips, forced ingestion of noxious substances (rotten porridge that children would throw up and then be forced to eat), sexual fondling, forced masturbation… the list goes on and on. But one of the most appalling and debasing examples of the indignity and the abuse suffered by children at St. Anne’s is that of being strapped down and tortured in a homemade electric chair—sometimes as a form of punishment—but other times just as a form of amusement for the missionaries, who, while committing these acts, were supposedly the ones “civilizing” the “Indians.”

Edmund Metatawabin was the chief of the Fort Albany First Nation in the 1990s, and the man who first brought these allegations to the attention of the OPP. Both he and his peers had been strapped down in the electric chair and he recalled the experiences as such: “Small boys used to have their legs flying in front of them… the sight of a child being electrocuted and their legs flying out in front was a funny sight for the missionaries and they’d all be laughing… the cranking of the machine would be longer and harder. Now you’re inflicted with real pain. Some of them passed out.”

In 1997, the OPP concluded its investigation and seven former employees of St. Anne’s were charged and convicted of a variety of assaults. The victims were never compensated, and the 7,000 pages of investigative evidence collected by the OPP was locked away somewhere in Orillia. Now, the victims are seeking compensation, and the federal government—who has subsequently become the defendant in a case involving the sexual abuse and torture of children by an electric chair—is attempting to keep those 7,000 documents from ever seeing the light of day, thus preventing the possibility of any recompense. The government is citing “privacy reasons” for their lack of transparency.

I corresponded with Fay Brunning, an Ottawa-based lawyer who is representing the victims of St. Anne’s in their compensation claims.

“In refugee claims in Canada,” says Fay, “the Federal Government accepts that electric shock is a form of torture. It was torture, according to many of my clients, to be strapped into that chair and electrocuted.”

Fay has been in contact with Detective Constable Greg Delguidice, an OPP officer who worked tirelessly on this case throughout the 90s, and who, in a ‘Will Say’ document (meaning it describes what Delguidice will say in court) Fay provided to me, Delguidice’s testimony corroborates the disturbing claims of the St. Anne’s survivors. But it also indicates that the federal government is not disclosing the most crucial evidence of abuse at the school: “None of this evidence is disclosed in the Federal Government disclosure package about St. Anne’s, which is supposed to reveal all the documents about sexual or physical abuse at the school while it operated.”

I called up Delguidice directly, at his office in Kapuskasing, to see if he’d be willing to provide a comment or perspective on the case, but he respectfully declined, saying it’s “in the middle of a civil process right now” and that their “corporate communications is dealing with the matter.”

These documents that the government is withholding are vitally important to the process, because without some form of official record, the claims of abuse by these victims are easily dismissed as being based solely on abstract words and memories. As Fay Brunning told me, “I take the position that the Federal Government should admit liability to those former students who were electrocuted… Former students should not have to go in, on their own, and each of them convince the adjudicator there was an electric chair. Furthermore, there should be no doubt that compensation should be granted to those people who were electrocuted.”

Seeing as the government is the defendant in this claims case, it seems totally bogus that they should have any legal say on what evidence may or may not be presented. “The fact is,” says Charlie Angus, Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay, “that the federal government is the defendant in the case. So, do we allow perps in any kind of sexual rape case to decide what kind of evidence comes forth? No.”

I called up Charlie to get some civil and political perspective on just why the government feels that it’s worth still trying to hide these thousands of documents of abuse evidence that are, at this point, essentially common knowledge in northern Ontario. Although not surprisingly—for an outspoken NDP critic of Aboriginal Affairs and Justice (who also hates Twitter)—he was candid on the matter, which was a refreshing departure from our often precious and handle-with-kid-gloves members of Parliament. In his words:

“They’re doing a lot of weaseling—legal weasel stuff that they always do with First Nations—to have the federal government not bother to tell these survivors when they’re coming in and having to prove their case, that, ‘yeah, we know where the evidence is, we’re just not going to provide it’"

"This is a government that talks about standing up for the victim all the time and they’re going to be tough on criminals. Well, are they telling us that there’s two classes of victims in this country? Native and non-Native? And that Native victims are just going to have to make do with less, and have their rights interfered with—have evidence of sexual torture and abuse of children suppressed? What, to save some dollars? I find that absolutely appalling. That they knew this, that they knew these documents were there and they made no evidence to supply them is mind boggling.”

From there, I asked Charlie if he thought the government could redeem themselves—if they could turn this around and make good to the victims of St. Anne’s, on their Residential School apology, and on the commitment they made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“They can. The timing is important. They have to supply these documents soon. I know that at the provincial level we have people who are willing to help, we know the OPP are willing to help. People want justice done. Who would side with covering up or denying child victims of sexual and physical torture? It takes a special level of hardened depravity to want that. So, I expect this Justice Minister is going to do the right thing and they will turn those documents over. I’m sorry, They’ve been outed. The light’s shining on them. It’s time to do right, whether they want to or not. We’ve got to drag them into the daylight kicking and screaming, but we want justice.“

To not immediately release these documents shows that the current government was dishonest in their apology that First Nations groups say yielded no significant change for their way of life in Canada. Obviously it was a hollow gesture. And now, to deny the claims and withhold evidence of what amounts to torture from child survivors is, well, *bleep* up. Stephen Harper relished the moment to deliver a historical apology. Now it’s time to actually do something, and make things better for Canada’s Native victims.

Source:

http://www.vice.com/read/the-canadian-g ... e-children

[Piecemaker]

Appalling. Made me ill to read it.

[jimsenchuk]

Appalling. Made me ill to read it.

Me too mate.

[WhatThe]

Corrupt, ethically and morally bankrupt govt of Canada. Disgusting.

[maryjane48]

Corrupt, ethically and morally bankrupt govt of Canada. Disgusting

exactly

[jimsenchuk]

Starving children, withholding information was horrific policy

(Academics and health researchers built a healthy new Canada shamefully using the broken bodies of our kids as test subjects)

As if we were not hurt enough by the atrocities of the residential school system and Canada's racist policies, along comes Ian Mosby's biting exposé describing government-conducted nutritional experiments on already-hungry children in the mid-1900s. Now we add laboratory rat to the list.

Today, we hurt. We hurt because we are facing a chapter in our history of these newly identified actions of racism on our friends, family members and colleagues that appear to be deliberate, targeted and academically egregious. We hurt because we realize that only by a trick of time and nature we were not born into that process.

We hurt because for this brief moment we understand how those childhood moments have defined the lives of our families. We are ashamed because these were calculated actions from within our profession: academics and health researchers building a healthy new Canada on the broken bodies of our little children.

Little was known about nutrition in the time between 1942 and 1952 and in the approximately 1,300 bodies of marginalized impoverished indigenous adults and captive residential schoolchildren, government of Canada researchers found their test subjects.

Food and nutrition were withheld from some children; others received minimal baseline amounts while control groups received the full supplement. Since gum health was a good measure of malnourishment, dental treatment was withheld and many children had all of their teeth pulled. We wonder now if the many chronic health problems in indigenous communities today are a result of that period of experimentation.

Full story here:

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Star ... story.html

[A_Britishcolumbian]

so good of you to bring this to the fore once again jimsenchuk.

it amazes me that people, people on this forum, would deny that such things took place.

ernst zundel was jailed for his denial of history.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

ottawa continues to try and hide their misdeeds.

while we twiddle our thumbs and 'apologize' to a people that do not exist, ottawa continues to commit genocide against first nations people. viewtopic.php?f=52&t=49450

ottawa is for the rich and gang affiliated. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=50562

St. Anne's Residential School survivor says Ottawa 'hiding evidence'
Fight on to obtain documents former students say would corroborate abuse claims
By Karina Roman, CBC News Posted: Dec 17, 2013

St. Anne's Residential School survivors were in Ontario Superior Court today in a bid to get the federal government to release documents the former students say would help corroborate their claims of abuse.

The documents they want are from a five-year Ontario Provincial Police investigation in the 1990s, as well as files from the subsequent trials that resulted in several convictions against school staff and supervisors.

A judge hearing the case issued an interim sealing order and partial publication ban on the names of victims in the case.

St. Anne's operated in Fort Albany, Ont., near James Bay, and was the site of some of the worst cases of abuse in the country, including physical and sexual abuse. Survivors tell stories of children being forced to eat their own vomit and of the nuns and brothers shocking children as young as six in a homemade electric chair.

"We're just so tired of trying to convince people that this happened," said Edmund Metatawabin in an earlier interview with CBC News. He attended St. Anne's for eight years starting in 1956.

​Under the residential school settlement, former students can make a claim for compensation through the independent assessment process (IAP). In a private hearing, they tell their stories to an adjudicator.

The adjudicator is meant to have information on the school, known perpetrators and convictions in advance. However, until recently, the information provided on St. Anne's said there were no known incidents of sexual abuse at the school, despite the police investigation and trials.

Fay Brunning, a lawyer representing some of the former students, said she pointed this out to the government. At first, the federal government said it had no obligation to get the files from provincial authorities. But Ottawa had obtained many of the files 10 years ago and still has them.

"What's happening is individual people are going in and they're basically having to start from scratch with every adjudicator every time, because this entire body of evidence has not come forward," Brunning said in an interview with CBC News.

The government has amended the St. Anne's "narrative" for adjudicators to include all the known convictions, but only did so after the battle over the documents began.

In its submission to the court, the government cites privacy concerns when arguing against disclosing the files. But it also argues that evidence from investigations and trials pertaining to certain victims should not be used for claimants not involved in those cases.

"It is Canada's position that such evidence is both inadmissible and irrelevant in the context of an IAP claim," the submission said, adding that the extra evidence is also not necessary for a former student to make a successful claim when St. Anne's former students have so far had a very high claim success rate.

"There is no practical requirement for corroborative evidence in respect of alleged acts of compensable abuse."

Brunning disagrees.

"The federal government has a duty to disclose all documents in its possession that contain allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the school. There's no exceptions," she said.

A lawyer for the police said he had no issue turning over the records if authorized by the courts.

"We certainly don't want to stand in the way of anything," lawyer Norm Feaver said.

The Canadian Press reported the hearings were twice interrupted when a reporter objected to a request by lawyers for the government and the adjudicator to impose a publication ban and sealing order on materials filed in the proceedings — including those already on the public record.

Later in the day, David Tortell, a lawyer for the CBC, told the court the presumption must be one of openness, and it is up to those who want a publication ban to show the necessity.

Justice Paul Perrell issued an interim order sealing most materials to allow time to hear proper arguments on the issue.

He also banned publication of identities of those going through the assessment process, unless they agree to be named or had already chosen to speak with the media.

Diana Fuller was the Crown prosecutor for the St. Anne's trials in the late 1990s, and is now retired.

"These witnesses were just heartstoppingly credible in their accounts," she said in an interview with CBC News. "It was almost as if it was crystallized in their mind what happened."

Fuller said if there is documentation available that is helpful to the survivors in making their claims, it should be provided.

The independent assessment process was supposed to be non-adversarial. But survivor Metatawabin says this dispute shows him the government sees itself as a defendant.

"And when you begin to defend yourself, you begin to hide things. That's exactly what the government is doing. They're hiding evidence," he said.

There are many interveners in the case. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is also arguing for access to the documents. The Assembly of First Nations supports the commission's bid as well as that of the survivors'. Also intervening are the OPP, the Office of the Chief Adjudicator, and the Sisters of Ottawa.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/st-anne ... -1.2466795